A Long-Stressed Europa possible Off-Kilter at One Time

By consider the distinctive cracks lining the icy features of Europa, NASA scientists found confirmation that this moon of Jupiter likely spun around a tilted axis at some point and this tilt could power calculations of how much of Europa's history is recorded in its frozen shell, how much heat is generated by tides in its ocean, and even how long the ocean has been liquid.

The Europa's network of crisscrossing cracks serves as a record of the stress caused by huge tides in the moon's global ocean. These tides occur for the reason that Europa travels around Jupiter in a slightly oval-shaped range to after Europa comes closer to the planet, the moon gets stretched like a rubber band, with the ocean height at the long ends increasing nearly 100 feet (30 meters). That's approximately as high as the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean, but it happens on a body that events only about one-quarter of Earth's diameter as Europa moves farther from Jupiter, it relaxes back into the shape of a ball.